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   Vol.66/No.44           November 25, 2002  
 
 
South Korea workers strike
against pay cut in fight
for shorter workweek
 
BY MAURICE WILLIAMS  
Some 120,000 workers at south Korea’s largest manufacturing companies walked off the job November 5 to protest a government move to shorten the workweek from 44 to 40 hours and thus cut workers’ paychecks, a scheme counterposed to the labor movement’s long-standing fight to reduce the workweek without a pay cut. The one-day strike paralyzed industrial production and forced the government to backpedal on the proposed legislation.

Some 166 industrial firms were hit by the walkout, including automakers Hyundai Motor, Kia Motors, and Ssangyong Motor. The strike also halted production at auto parts companies, tire producers, machinery manufacturers, and other heavy industrial corporations.

The workers held rallies in Seoul and 20 other cities. The Korea Metal Workers Federation and the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), which organized the action, rejected the government’s shorter workweek bill because it would mean a cut in pay. The legislation would also reduce the number of paid holidays.

Earlier this year the KCTU, the second largest labor organization, led tens of thousands of workers in protest rallies and wildcat strikes demanding a five-day, 40-hour workweek with no cut in pay. In face of these actions, the government introduced a bill to reduce the official workweek by 10 percent. The Korea Employers Association rejected the legislation, calling it "premature," and demanded the government reduce the number of public holidays and vacation days.

In south Korea, bosses force many workers to toil longer than the official 44 hours a week. Through the 1980s the average workweek was 54 hours--among the longest in the world. After massive protests led to the end of the U.S.-backed military dictatorship, workers launched further struggles and won the right to organize unions. A nationwide strike wave in 1988 forced further concessions from the bosses, including higher wages and a shorter workweek.

More recently, the unions have been pressing to reduce the official workweek to 40 hours. But they were outraged that the government bill in its latest version did not maintain workers’ weekly pay.

The one-day general strike was a widening of a November 4-5 strike by 30,000 state workers, who were protesting the proposed legislation on the workweek and a bill that would establish "associations" for public employees. The government bars public employees from organizing unions and the right to strike.

The cops, declaring the strike illegal, attacked a rally of 1,000 strikers at Hanyang University in Seoul on November 4, and arrested more than 600 workers.  
 
 
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